It took awhile, but Seth Curry and Duke were able to celebrate Thursday

The basketball teams at North Carolina and Duke are different in both style and substance, but because of their proximity on the map and in the ACC standings, it always seems as though the two bitter rivals exist in a kind of parallel universe.

This season is no exception.

But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Because while the Tar Heels and Blue Devils are once again battling it out – along with Florida State – for yet another regular-season league championship, they also share a trait that could come back to haunt them once the postseason arrives in less than a month.

Both, it seems, need the challenge of a large deficit to bring out the best in them. The only difference is where the phenomenon takes place.

For UNC it’s on the road, where it has trailed by eight or more points in the second half of three of their last four games before roaring from behind to win. Duke’s problem is at home and is much more extreme.

In two of their last three games at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Blue Devils have dug holes of 16 points against Miami and 20 against N.C. State on Thursday before rallying to either send the game into overtime or win in regulation. They also erased a 10-point deficit in the final 2½ minutes against UNC to pull out a victory in Chapel Hill last week.

It’s a pattern that has to be of concern to coach Mike Krzyzewski, even though he did his best to avoid the subject when asked about it after his team’s latest comeback.

“You know what is a concern for me today? A celebration of a great win,” Krzyzewski said defiantly. “Whatever string of things happened, we are 22-4. We’re not a perfect team, but we’re a good team, and we’re a team that has fought.

“Instead of talking about inconsistencies and starts and struggles and all that, we’re 22-4 and we’ve got some kids that really fought their butts off, and gave us one of the incredible wins.”

That might be the case, but one of those kids that helped provide that incredible win wasn’t as nonchalant as his coach about the predicaments the Blue Devils have faced recently.

“I’m so proud and everybody’s so proud, but at the same time we need to stop doing this,” said freshman guard Austin Rivers, whose 3-pointer with 2:26 remaining capped the 20-point comeback and sealed a 78-73 win against the Wolfpack. “(N.C. State) played well and they hit shots. But for us to be down by 20 in Cameron, it should never happen.”

When pressed on the issue, Krzyzewski offered fatigue as an explanation for his team’s sometimes spotty performances.

Roy Williams has had some stressful moments with his team on the road this season

He said that the Blue Devils are worn out both physically and mentally after starting the season in July with an exhibition trip to China and Dubai, and that is isn’t until the survival instinct of desperation kicks in that they finally begin to find their second wind.

“Some teams hit a wall and we haven’t hit a wall yet,” Krzyzewski said. “We may have run into it, but we find some door that opens and figure out a way to win. Hopefully we can get our team fresh before March.”

For UNC, the problem is more motivational rather than physical.

Perhaps the Harrison Barnes and the talented Tar Heels simply feel they need a challenge to give their best effort, especially when they’re playing in a less than emotionally charged atmosphere as they did at Miami on Wednesday.

Whatever the case, coach Roy Williams has become so accustomed to his team’s pattern of falling shooting poorly, falling behind and having to make up a significant deficit in the second half on the road that’s he seems to have embraced it.

“It was one of those wins that you have to have to have a fantastic year,” he said.

As true as that statement might be, by Friday, the UNC coach acknowledged that that Tar Heels can’t keep tempting the fates continuing to play from behind – especially when they start playing equally talented teams in the one-and-done NCAA tournament.

“I like the toughness aspect of it,” Williams said of the comebacks. “But I don’t want (the players) to have it in reserve and think it’s going to be there all the time, because it doesn’t come out all the time.”